In the Wrong Time
by MissFuneralSong
Summary: Spoilers for Journey's End. One night, Wilf looks up at the stars and wishes for the Doctor to return, and he does. But he's not quite the Doctor Wilf knows, not yet. A Fifth Doctor story.


**AN: **Borne of the Doctor Who Random Pairing Generator result: Wilfred Mott / Fifth Doctor / in the wrong time

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_In the Wrong Time_

The Doctor takes Donna's memories away. It's what has to be done. Wilf understands that, even though it hurts him and Sylvia and Donna although she doesn't know it, and by the look on that kind, youthful face it hurts the Doctor just as much. They can't help it though. It's for the best. So Wilf says goodbye to the man, says he'll look up at the stars every night, for Donna. And he means it.

The very next night he goes up the hill with a thick coat and a thermos full of hot tea, sits on his very favourite chair and peers into his telescope. Wilf thinks of the Doctor as he does this; he wishes the Doctor would come back, appear before Wilf in his wondrous TARDIS, saunter out and say _oh sorry, turns out there's a way to fix it_. Because it's not fair that Donna should have to forget all the things she's seen and done. The Doctor's an alien and the smartest man Wilf's ever met, and as such he ought to have a better solution than this!

Right at that moment, just as Wilf's glaring at Venus and not really seeing it, feeling sorry for himself and his granddaughter and the Doctor because Wilf knows it's not really the Doctor's fault, he hears it. That all-too-familiar sound, the wheezing and grinding, the sound of the universe. And it's _close_. Wilf leaps from his seat, much more spryly than anyone would have thought him able - especially Sylvia - glancing this way and that to try and spot a hint of blue paint or the swirl of a trenchcoat. And there it is, off in the distance. Quickly, Wilf heads toward it, hoping against hope that the Doctor's come bearing a miracle. It's so dark and he's so excited that he fails to notice what's different about the TARDIS; it looks newer, less weathered and worn. Younger.

He hobbles up to the doors and raps on one, waiting expectantly for the Doctor to bound out, all pinstripe suit and crazy hair and impossible energy, but he doesn't. Instead, a different man emerges backward, looking very befuddled indeed, and even more so when he turns around and spots Wilf, whose face has well and truly fallen. This man has fair hair and a young face, and is dressed very strangely in old cricketing gear with a long beige coat. There appears to be a stick of celery pinned to his lapel. He gives Wilf a worried look, sticks his hands in his pockets and says, "Oh. Hello. Er...this may seem a peculiar question, but have you seen two young women, one rather loud and dressed as an air hostess?"

Wilf shakes his head no, mouth open slightly, brow furrowing in disappointed puzzlement. He points a slightly quivering finger at the police box. "That's the TARDIS, isn't it?" he asks uncertainly.

The man looks at the box, then peers at Wilf, a bit suspiciously. "Yes," he answers slowly. "Yes, that's my TARDIS. How did you know that? Have we met?"

"'Ere," says Wilf with a touch of indignance, "that's not _yours_, that belongs to the Doctor!"

A look of confusion and surprise from the man eventually settles into one of comprehension. "Ah, right. You must have met one of my other incarnations. I'm a Time Lord, you know, I've had a few different faces in my life, and I'm sure I'm bound to have a few more." When Wilf doesn't appear to understand this, the man goes on. "I _am _the Doctor. Just - apparently not as you know him. I'm the Doctor from a different time."

This concept is still quite hard for Wilf to wrap his head around, but at the very least the man's words are convincingly akin to the way the Doctor usually speaks. So Wilf fixes him with desperate, pleading eyes. "Are you from the future? Have they figured out a way to help my Donna?"

The Doctor - Wilf still finds it hard to believe that this is the same man, but time travel is tricky business so he supposes it's possible - looks blank, so Wilf explains everything he knows. There were Daleks, and something happened to Donna that her brain couldn't handle, so the Doctor had to make her forget. This new - or old - Doctor listens patiently, and when Wilf reaches the end of the story the Doctor shakes his head.

"I'm sorry," he says earnestly. "I'm terribly sorry, but if myself in the future could think of no other way, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do as I am now."

Wilf hangs his head sadly, nods. He didn't really expect this man to be able to help him, to help Donna, but he'd _hoped_. He feels the Doctor lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, and they stand there like that for several seconds before voices ring out in the crisp night air, causing both men to jump and look round. Two women are walking up the hill toward them, both brunettes, one dressed as the man had described in a purple air hostess's uniform. They smile in relief as they see the Doctor, and he smiles back, and Wilf stares from the girls to the man and realises _they're just like my Donna, aren't they_.

Introductions happen in a rushed way, this Doctor realising that he hasn't yet asked Wilf's name - and acting quite as absentminded as the Doctor that Wilf knows so well. The women are called Nyssa and Tegan and seem very nice before they insist they have to be off and save the universe. Wilf understands. He waves goodbye as the TARDIS disappears, trying not to wonder whether Nyssa and Tegan will one day face the same fate, or something just as bad, as his Donna.

_FIN._


End file.
